


How Many Times Can You Love?

by Kawaii_Chibi_InuDemon



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Demons, Depression, F/M, Heartbreak, Mind Control, Romance, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:49:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27402274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kawaii_Chibi_InuDemon/pseuds/Kawaii_Chibi_InuDemon
Summary: When Danny has to go into the Ghost Zone to put a stop to Pariah, a ghost that he had so many problems putting down before, Sam has both married and lost her husband in the span of five years that he has been gone. He had wanted to tell her of his love for her, but kept quiet before having to go into the war against Pariah, he comes back to find that she's grieving in the worst way, but is everything as it seems when the young woman is haunted by something intent on hurting her? Can they come clean about how they felt before Sam finds herself dying without hearing the man she truly loves tell her how he feels?
Relationships: Danny Fenton/Sam Manson, Sam Manson/Original Male Character(s)





	1. Chapter 1

A raven haired female sat up in her king sized bed, the sheets sticking to her skin as she struggled to awaken from the nightmare that had held her in its thrall. Looking around she found it was still dark in her master bedroom, the light from the moon peeking through the window over her bed, some of the curtain pushed open the way her husband had liked it. She looked to her left, the side that he would have slept on empty and cool to the touch. Reaching over she grabbed his pillow, the black pillow cover covered in his scent, his cologne. It had been one year since his death and yet his essence was everywhere in their house, his smell, his presence it lingered to remind her of what she had lost. Letting out a small gasp, her heart clenching in pain the small woman buried her face in the pillow, filling her lungs with his smell, his comfort.

"Chris," she murmured, her throat closing at his name, her eyes tearing up at his memory. He had been like her in so many ways and yet so unique in his own right. Their relationship hadn't been perfect, but what relationship had been? Closing her eyes she could still see him, his blue eyes so dark that they had almost been black, but she could remember the different shades of blue those orbs had held and all the emotion they could reflect when her husband had wanted them to. Laying there in their house she found that she couldn't change the fact that he was gone. Their dream home was now empty of love and of emotion, a former shell of a dream… just a house now.

It had all happened so long ago and yet the petite woman could remember it all like it had happened mere hours ago, the crash that had taken her husband and their unborn child. After being married for one year after they had graduated from high school the pair had begun trying for a child, someone that would complete their little family, but it was not to be it seemed because for two years they tried to no avail. They had gone to doctors for an answer and had found there was nothing wrong with either of them, both of them as healthy as a person could get.

Then one month after they had given up, deciding to adopt a child instead, Sam had found out that she was pregnant. Going to him with the news they had decided to announce it at the dinner they would be having with his parents that weekend so they held onto that secret, enjoying the moment they had found out they would be parents. That was to be short lived because as they had been driving down the road, a long and winding road to his parents house out of town they had been hit. A man that had been drinking was speeding, a chase from the cops, and as they both turned, one coming at the other, they had been hit. Sam could remember it all, the sound of the tires squealing, the lights that blinded her as she positioned for impact.

Chris had tried his best to avoid the other driver without taking them off the road and into a ditch, but it had been in vain because the other driver still hit them nearly head on. As the crunch of metal hit her ears she could see it in slow motion. The cars smashing together in a loud echoing crash of sparks. She could see Chris at her side, his short black hair hitting the windshield as she hit the passenger window. She wanted to reach out to him, but her arms wouldn't move as her vision grew dark. When she opened her eyes in what felt like hours later she had found herself looking out of the cracked windshield as red and blue lights reflected in her vision.

Forcing her pained neck to turn she looked for her husband, his limp body lying across the steering wheel.

"Chris." She had called his name, but he had failed to take note or move, her eyes growing wide. She failed to notice the blood dripping down her face even as it trickled into her mouth. She called for him again, her hand reaching out to touch his shoulder as yelling was heard. This time he groaned, his head turning against the wheel and his beautiful blue eyes locking on her amethyst ones. Sam held back the gasp of pain and shock as she looked at his handsome face, most of it covered in blood from a gash on his forehead. Touching his face she felt the warm, sticky blood coat her fingertips, but she didn't care because she was worried for her husband. "Chris."

"Sam."

He had said her name now, his hand coming out to take hers off his face so he could hold it. He had smiled then, the pain that reflected in his eyes now mixing with love. Sam forced a smile to her own lips even as they quivered with the tears that she was holding back.

"I love you."

Those had been his last words to her as his eyes glazed over with the veil of death, the once blue eyes now a milky white as the blue faded. She had screamed at that moment, the feeling of that scream vibrating her throat as the driver door was wrenched open. The EMT that checked her husband shook his head at the other EMT that was assisting her. His name fell from her lips as pain welled in her, all the shock and adrenaline fading as her own injuries cried out in misery. Her heart hurt the most as she was pulled from her seat, the seatbelt cut from her form before being laid out on a gurney.

Sam cried into the pillow, her mind full of all the images from that day, the feelings that swamped her. She knew that all she was doing was delaying her mourning, her in-laws having moved on as well as all of his family and friends. She was the last one, the only one that found herself unable to move past the pain and the sadness; the loss. As she lay there she didn't hear the knocking on her door, but soon it wasn't hard to hear as whoever it was began to bang. Groaning the Goth refused to get up from her bed knowing it was probably someone else, her family or his, trying to get her out of the house. She had refused to leave the house, not leaving her bed on most days as she clung to his essence.

Suddenly the air seemed to cool, the temperature going down several notches and Sam knew that she wasn't alone. Looking up she found her best friend, Danny, standing at the end of her bed. He looked confused and something else as he gazed at her clinging to the pillow.

"Sam, are you okay?" She had forgotten that the halfa hadn't been around for almost five years. He hadn't known she had married because he had been off fighting a war in the Ghost Zone. Seems that someone had let Pariah out and the ghost lord had been able to amass an army worth their weight in gold. Sam had kept up with it all through Tucker, but when Chris had died, it had all been forgotten. She hadn't talked to the technophile or his wife, Valerie. She hadn't talked to the Fenton's or her own parents in such a long time that she didn't think she could even remember what they looked like.

"No," the Goth said as she turned from him. "No, Danny, I am not okay and I am not sure I ever will be." The halfa came to sit by her on the bed, the action causing Sam to flinch as Danny's own scent filled her nose, overpowering her late husband's. "Please don't sit there." The white haired male stepped back, a look of hurt entering his glowing green orbs. Sam failed to notice as she pulled the pillow closer to her.

"I heard that you were married," the halfa said as he stood by her bed. "I'm sorry for your loss." Sam nodded, though she still refused to look at him. If she had she would have realized how much her friend had changed, his attitude still friendly, but those eyes of his no longer held the joy they used to and his lean form had become more muscular. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No. I want to be left alone." At first it seemed like he was going to say something, but looking at her Danny could tell she was scared and she obviously wanted to be left alone. He would leave her for now, but he knew she needed to get out of the house and she needed to be taken care of, her once glowing skin pale and almost grey in color, her raven hair faded and oily looking with lack of care, and while he couldn't seen under her sheets he could tell by looking at her face that she hadn't been eating like she should.

"Okay. If you need me you know how to reach me." The Goth gave him no response as she closed her eyes again, the need to go back to her dreams overwhelming the need to be in reality even with the chance of nightmares. "See you later, Sam."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

That night Sam lay still in her bed, most of her day spent there after Danny had visited. She knew Danny was hurt by her not wanting his help, from denying their relationship. Friends helped each other and he had helped her on more than one occasion and vice versa, but this time she didn't want anyone to know. There was no one that could understand this, this pain that filled her heart when it should be empty of any emotion and the visions that entered her mind at night and haunted her during the day. The house was one big haunted house, but nothing jumped out to scare her, no, there was only tears for all the good memories that she and Chris had enjoyed. The plans they had made together and the life they had planned.

No one had known that they had been expecting, not a soul knew now. It had been a secret that she planned to take to the grave. Closing her eyes she sighed as she forced her body back to sleep, a safe and yet unsafe place to be.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Danny showed back up at the house a few days later, his mind filled with images that were burned into his retinas. He had never seen Sam so broken as she had been that day. She had lost too much weight and her beautiful hair that had once shown with such blinding intensity was now dull. He could remember growing up with her and finding that he loved her, an emotion he had been rather shocked to feel because it wasn't a friendly love. It was I want to marry you and make babies with you kind of love. He had wanted to tell her and then the thing with Pariah had happened. He had had to leave and with that knowledge he hadn't wanted to leave her with those as the last words when he didn't know if he was going to make it back.

Pariah had been a hard ghost to beat and it had taken him five years to destroy him, all the death that he had been responsible for as he killed ghost after ghost. He had found out that a ghost could die, but only in a certain way and it had been the most gruesome way possible. Looking in the window he found Sam laying on her stomach, her body shaking visibly as she clung to a pillow, the one from the side of the bed where her husband had obviously laid.


	2. Chapter 2

Danny didn't know what to do with this information, hell, he hadn't even known she was dating a guy much less marrying one. Watching her he could see that she was heartbroken, but there was more and he could feel it in the way she lay. She had lost more than her husband on that day and he would find out because seeing her like this was breaking his heart.

The love he had felt for his friend had been minor when they were children, like most friends had, but as he spent that time in the Ghost Zone he had found that out of all the people he had missed, he missed her the most. Her smile, her demanding ways about the environment and those eyes. Her amethyst eyes had haunted him because in the end she had stuck by him no matter what. There had been times he had been sure she would walk away, the times he had turned his back on them when it came to Paulina or the popular kids.

He had regretted his actions when he had seen how hurt the pair had been. Tucker had done it on several occasions, but he too had forgiven his friend only to pull a stunt that put the halfa and the Goth girl in danger. Sam had done that a few times inadvertently while Tucker's had been so upfront. The example that came to mind was the Lunch Lady, a force that had shown up because of Sam's want to have others eat like her while Tucker had pointed her out when he could have kept his mouth shut. Just one of many times his friends proved themselves. Shaking his head he entered the room, the air growing colder around him and alerting the woman in bed.

"Danny?" she questioned, alert, but she continued to lay there. Danny moved closer to her to find her passed out still, her small form still shaking as she groaned. It was a mystery why she had called his name. Sitting on the edge of the bed he watched her, the small woman's now long raven hair fanned out behind her as she gripped the pillow for life.

-Dream-

Looking around I could only see death, several forms laying around me. I could see my parents and to their left were the Fentons. I rushed to the Fentons side with little hesitation because even though I cared about my parents, not their opinions, but themselves personally, I wanted to aid the people who had cared more when all had broken down. My parents hadn't approved of my marriage to Chris. They had claimed I didn't really want the man the way I had yearned for another. I placed my fingers first to Jack's neck and then to Maddie's, the redhead clinging to her husband as he hugged her close.

That was the difference to my parents and Danny's parents. They clung to each other while my own parents merely lay next to each other as if they had climbed into bed. So neutral with little in the appearance of loving each other and yet they thought they could claim I didn't love my husband. Standing up I looked around me again to find that every body on the ground had a partner, most of them clinging to each other while others lay there in single poses. I moved toward the other couples, unafraid and unmoved by their deaths. Was I a bad person? No, not bad, just broken. As I looked up to see the road ahead of me I could see a swirling vortex of black and red, like something from a horror movie I knew it was pure evil and yet I couldn't help but walk toward it.

I passed Valerie with Tucker, Paulina with Dash, and many more of my classmates grown up but still the same people I had known. Under my feet the sound of liquid alerted me to the fact that the ground was no longer free of gore. There was a small puddle of blood under me, the only spot of blood that I had seen. The air felt thicker over here too and I felt a cough escape my mouth, the sound echoing around me. What was going on here?

"Sam!" I looked around me at the sound of my name to see a shadow in the distance. The shadow waved and yet didn't make a move toward me even as it called for me again and yet I felt happiness that it didn't move toward me. Suddenly I felt pain on my upper arms. Looking to my arms I found myself in the one outfit I had worn as a teen, the black tank top showing my creamy arms off. What I saw on my arms made me cry out as I tried to shove it off, but they wouldn't move off my flesh.

"Sam!" This time the voice was different, not scary at all like the other one had been. Looking around I forgot my arms as I looked for the voice that filled me with comfort. "Sam! You need to wake up!"

Wake up? I was awake!

-End of Dream-

Sam shot up, her amethyst eyes wide as they landed on the person leaning over her. What she saw was blurry and shady making her think of the shadow in her dream, the one that had frightened her for some reason. The form before her didn't make her feel that fear though as it reached out to touch her arms and the Goth let out a scream of pain as she felt the injury done to her body. The person before her dropped their hands with a curse before she felt the chill grow closer and she realized who was leaning before her.

"Danny," she muttered as her vision cleared to reveal a very upset halfa, his green eyes flashing as he reached out to touch her arms lower than he had before as his orbs stared at her upper arms with such a look of shock and anger that Sam herself looked down to find marks covering her creamy flesh. "What-" She stopped as he looked to her in disbelief. Neither had seen those marks days ago.

"Have you had anyone over?" Sam shook her head as she observed the change of emotions in Danny's green orbs, such a swirl of powerful emotions that the Goth found tears coming to her eyes. The halfa before her was so unique and so special to her that seeing those emotions in his green orbs reminded her of their past. The times they had been alone, talking... bonding over such small things, but he had been the closest and yet the farthest person from her. "How in the hell did you get th-" He stopped as the marks disappeared before their eyes. "What the fuck?"

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

They sat there in silence as Danny paced the room now, his boots making soft sounds on the carpets as the sun tried to come through the curtains that Sam had asked him to shut. She didn't know what to make of the marks, the ones in her dream and the ones that had shown up in reality. How could she end up with those spots on her when she didn't remember anyone touching her in either space. The halfa looked to her now, his eyes reverting to blue as he allowed his human half to take control.

"I can't imagine how that could have happened," he stated in frustration. "Hell, I would have put a ghost as the suspect, but how would they make the marks go away? Was it an illusion?" How could it be when the pair had seen it together? That made little to no sense that an illusion appeared to two people. "I can't think of anything!" Sam could tell the halfa was frustrated and yet for some reason Sam couldn't bring that same emotion forward. She felt like she wasn't really there, the feeling of being separate from her body so real at the moment that she had to pinch her arm to make sure she was awake.

At the pain she knew this was reality and the marks that had marred her skin were really there and then gone the next instant. What was going on? As the room around them grew colder Sam watched a puff of mist left her mouth, the kind that only appeared on a cold day. She looked to Danny who had stopped pacing to look around as well, his own breath fogging in the air as hers had. He moved toward her as the air grew thicker, the ease of breathing becoming harder. He rushed to her side and pulling her, blanket and all, into his arms the halfa transformed back to the Phantom before exiting the house.

A few moments later they looked back as the house she had just been in, the chill gone save for the one that Danny himself gave off. He looked at the woman in his arms to find her staring at her home, the look of dismay in her eyes as she clung to the blanket in her arms like it was a lifeline.

"Are you okay?" he inquired. Sam nodded, her gaze still on the house that grew smaller with every mile they moved from the structure. "Are you sure?" Again she nodded, her gaze turning to him. "We will go back tomorrow, but for now you're coming to my house until I can acquire some tools to find out what is in that house."

"Do you think it's a ghost?" she inquired, her tone disbelief. He shrugged, the motion shaking her slightly as he looked back at the house before turning his green orbs back at her.

"I don't know what it is, but I also don't know if it intends to harm you." She nodded because he was right, but why? Why would a ghost mean her harm when she didn't fight ghosts anymore and had moved far enough out that she shouldn't be close to any ghost activity like the main part of the city was. Danny couldn't believe the disbelief that had tinged her tone. Sam had been the one that had believed in ghosts faster than he himself had. She had believed in supernatural forces, save for werewolves. She didn't believe in that, but she believed in ghosts. Looking ahead of him he dropped down, a large building coming up to meet them as he turned intangible.

As they stopped Sam found herself in an obvious bachelor house, the room done in dark colors like black and grey with some dark blue in the mix. She had never seen Danny as a dark person, but this house made it seem that way. There were inexpensive things that littered the main room, a nice comfy couch done in black with a few white pillows on it, but it wasn't leather or anything and that was something she had expected of him. Danny had been blinded by wealth before and after realizing what it did to a person had refused to be a part of it again. She was put down, her bare feet touching his soft carpet as Danny de-transformed.

He didn't say much as he took her hand now to lead her down a hallway to their left, the hall's walls filled with pictures from their past, their happy faces beaming back at her while others had pictures of ghosts he had caught and others with his family in them. She stopped short at one particular one, the teen looking back at her in a scant green outfit with long raven hair up in horns. She remembered that time, but had had no idea he had taken a picture of it. He had stopped when she had and smiled.

"Got lucky someone hadn't been under control." She looked to him and somehow found a smile on her lips. She had been so out of it that she still didn't remember the whole experience. She had known she'd done some bad things, but she didn't know what she had done exactly. "No one blames you, Sam."

"They should," she said as she touched the glass, the feeling cold beneath her warm fingers. "I shouldn't have been so easy to control and I regret it." Turning from it she urged him to move along. He almost didn't but seeing the look of regret filling her amethyst gaze he continued down the hall showing her his room before showing her a guest room next to his. The room was made just like Sam herself would have wanted it. Black and red filled the room with little in the way of light. There was one large window, but there were thick curtains covering it. "Why?"

"Well, you are my friend so I had two rooms in the house made for you and Tucker. I figured that we would still like to hang out." She nodded as she walked toward the king sized bed, her eyes falling on the black and red comforter and in her mind she could see her comforter as a child. It was identical. "Your parents were going to destroy it along with most of the stuff in your room. Planned on making your room into a guest room." Sam realized as she looked around that all her furniture was here, the pictures that she had created and adored her wall were there.

"Thank you, Danny."


	3. Chapter 3

That evening found a distressed Sam twisting in her sheets, her whimpering soft and yet it woke Danny up. The halfa moved quickly into her room, the sounds of her distress worrying him. As he entered the room Sam began to cry, her body shaking as she whispered her husband's name, his name a sound of such pain that the halfa felt his heart break for his friend.

"Sam," he called out as he moved toward her bed, the Goth turning over toward him. Danny sat down next to her as she opened her eyes, the pain in those amethyst orbs making him upset because Sam had never done anything to deserve losing the love she had just found. Danny was feeling guilty though because he was a little happy that Sam was free now and even though she was sure she was never going to be okay he could feel that she would be because Sam was stronger than she believed herself to be. "Hey, are you okay?"

"No-o," she managed to stutter out as a shiver shook her form. "I feel cold and hot at the same time." The halfa reached out and touching her forehead found it hot to the touch.

"Sam, you have a fever," Danny said as he got up. "I'll be right back." Leaving the room he failed to notice the shadow that hovered over the Goth as she pulled the blankets over her, her form shaking as a chill hit her head on. As the halfa reentered the room though he felt it, the chill that came from his ghost half filling the room, but he couldn't pinpoint why it was in the room when he was in his human form so placing the bucket next to the wall he ran for the female in the bed. Pulling her into his arms he took her out of the room and into his room where he laid her before going to his closet and pulling out what resembled some futuristic bazooka.

Running back into her room he pulled the trigger after aiming around the room. As green goo was expelled from the machine he moved it all over so it fill the room. Sure, he was getting it on everything, but he could clean that. Closing the door he went to grab all the things he had been bringing to her and thirty minutes later was tucked into bed next to the Goth, her body finally stopping the shaking though the fever was still strong.

"It'll be okay," he promised her. "It will all be okay."

After a long night of caring for the incapacitated Goth Danny had to call his sister to come and aid him as the fever had yet to fully break.

"I don't want to stay here," the raven haired woman groaned as she attempted to crawl out of bed only to find that her body refused to listen to her as another nauseous feeling erupted in her gut at the same time as spots appeared in her vision. Before she could fall from the bed Danny was at her side, helping her back into the bed before covering her back up. Taking the hot rag off the bed he dipped it in the warm water before heading out of the room.

"You don't want to fight me on this, Sam. I know you better than you know yourself." The Goth's eyes narrowed as those words echoed in her mind. She had been told that before, by another man, another time and when he had said that her- Sam's hands grasped her head as the pain filtered into her skull. Danny appeared at the door with another bucket, but at the look on her face he set it on the floor before rushing to her side. "Sam?" She shook her head as the pain began to ebb like a tide that was heading back to sea. "What happened?"

"Nothing, just a head pain." His eyes narrowed, his ice blue eyes taking in the pain that filled her amethyst gaze as she closed her eyes, her hands falling to her sides with a sigh. "I have them every so often," she clarified. "Then they're gone like they had never happened."

"Do you know what caused them?" She shook her head just as the doorbell rang. "That must be Jazz." She narrowed her gaze at him.

"I can't believe you are going to leave me with her!" she hissed. "She's not going to leave me be." Danny smiled at her, his white teeth flashing in the little light that was entering from a slit in the curtains.

"I promise that she will leave you be. She's only going to make sure this temperature goes down in the next few hours while I check out your house." That made the Goth frown, her lips turning upside down. "Once we're sure it's safe you can go back. I promise." Sam nodded as she allowed him to go and answer the door. Sam wondered what was going on with her life because after Chris had died so many health issues had started to plague her. There was a headache that lasted for seconds, but she had no idea what set it off and then there were the nightmares, the visions of Chris. She smiled. They had been fine at first but then she had started finding herself afraid of them, but she couldn't remember what happened in them.

"So, the fevers gone down, but it's still high?" Jazz questioned. "Did you give her a cool bath?"

"That is not something I should do with me being a guy and all," the halfa said just outside the door. "I don't think she would be comfortable with me helping her with that." The redhead let out a snort. "What was that about?"

"Sam is your friend and would be fine with you helping her as long as you didn't get a hard on just at-"

"SHUT UP!" he hissed loudly as they entered the room. "Stupid woman," he muttered before turning his attention to the bedridden Goth. "Sam, if you need anything let Jazz know. I should be back in a few hours." Sam nodded and watched the halfa leave before turning her gaze on the redhead. Jazz smiled and checking on the rag began to talk to the woman in the bed.

'I knew it.'

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Danny entered the grounds for the house, this time he started from the outside, his eyes peeled for any sign of a ghost or human that had been around the house. To his surprise he found that the grounds were not well kept, something that was so difficult to believe with Sam being the natural gardener that she was. Walking past the dead remains of what had once been a rather large vegetable garden Danny found signs that someone had been out in the garden, the footprints too large to be Sam's so taking out his phone he took pictures before heading around back and toward the house where a rather large pool was green with algae.

"It just all went to moot," he muttered. Shaking his head he phased into the house only to feel a chill upon entering, a chill that was colder than his own. Shivering slightly he looked around, the house so fancy that Danny thought he had come to the wrong house. Sam's room had been elaborate, but he hadn't really noticed the first visit. Looking around he could tell that a lot of money went into furnishing the house. Walking from room to room he found that the chill didn't leave, in fact it felt like it was on top of the halfa. Pulling out his phone he called his parents and explained the issue.

After a few minutes of talking he found out more about the house, the fact that it had been built for the couple... For Sam he assumed. That didn't seem like his Goth as she hated splendor! Had she changed in those years he was gone? Shaking his head he remembered that she hadn't seemed like herself with the depression that hung over her and at the same time she had seemed like the Sam he knew with her lack of wanting to sit still, or be babied. She had hated that as a child and seemed to still hate it now, but if that was the case then what was going on?

Walking toward her room he felt the chill growing stronger, but he walked past it toward a room with one word on it... Nursery. Something told him it wasn't of the garden variety so he walked to the door and grasping the knob found it locked. Phasing into the room he was shocked to find a crib leaning against the wall ready to assemble and several decorations ready to be put on the wall and it hit him full in the face. Sam had been trying for a baby.

"Were they successful?" he questioned the room, though it didn't actually verbally answer he could see that most of the decorations were multi gender, like someone preparing, but unsure the gender. Noticing a book on a small table he approached it. His blue eyes took in the words, words that were confusing. Time to Adopt. What in the hell was that about? Reaching to open it he jumped as the door behind him opened and then closed, a chill going up Danny's spine as he dropped the book to see what it was only to find that there was no one there. "Who's there?" he called out.

He didn't get a response and reaching for the knob found it unlocked now. What the fuck is going on here? Opening the door he walked out into the hall to find a mess, glass shattered out on the floor, a pool of blood in the form of a body on the tiles before him. He took a step back and watched in shock as the blood seeped into the ground while the glass lay there. Definitely seems like a ghost, but what ghost and why Sam?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jazz had gone into the other room as Sam requested a drink, but as soon as the redhead was gone Sam felt the chill up her spine as darkness fell over the sun outside making the room darken. Tears gathered at her eyes, but this time it wasn't grief causing them... It was fear. She could feel it in the air, something wanted her and it wasn't a good thing that was after her.

"Go away," she muttered as tears fell down her cheeks. The response that she received was the window to her left shattering, the glass falling on the ground next to the bed. Within seconds Jazz appeared at the door, her teal eyes falling on the crying female before looking to the window.

"What happened? Are you hurt?" the redhead asked as she rushed to the other female's side. Sam uttered one word, her body calming while her heart pounded a mile a minute. "What?"

"Danny. Please get Danny." The older woman nodded before pulling out her phone, her speed dial calling the halfa only to get his recording. She quickly relayed what had just happen, though she wasn't entirely sure what had happened. The Goth moved further from the window as the sun appeared in the skies outside again, Jazz hanging up at the same time. She looked to Sam and could see the visible fear in the Goth's eyes. If this had happened before Danny's ghost fighting Jazz would have believed this to be some horrible prank, but knowing that ghosts existed she could believe that a ghost had made a move, but why?


	4. Chapter 4

When Danny finally managed to get back he found a freaked out Jazz, the redhead dancing around at the door waiting for him. He had never seen his sister this anxious before and it worried him.

"What's wrong?" he questioned as she calmed down just a bit before explaining what she had seen versus what the Goth in his room had seen just moments before Danny had come home. "She saw what?" He didn't wait for an answer as he rushed to the Gothic woman's side. She was still in his room, but she had moved to side of the bed that he had been laying on the previous night. She looked to him and the look in her eyes told him all. She was scared and at the same time she knew what the malevolent spirit wanted.

"It's after me," she muttered, and while it seemed that she knew that he could tell by the confusion in her tone that she didn't understand the one question that all of them were asking. "Why?" She reached out for him, her fear bringing her down and she needed him. She needed the halfa before her because he was strong and she needed strength now to deal with whatever was after her. Sam and Danny had dealt with ghosts most of their young life, Danny more so with his family's ghost hunting business, but neither of them had dealt with one on these terms.

"I don't know why," the dark haired male admitted. "But it seems to be confined to your home and that leads me to question you on a few personal things." The Goth looked to him with suspicion. It was as if she knew what he was going to ask as well as the fact she knew that he had been snooping. "Were you two going to adopt or had you tried to adopt?" The raven haired woman almost fell over in both shock and disbelief.

"Did you go in there?" she whispered back as she moved from him, the halfa having moved to sit close to her. "You went into the locked room." He nodded. "Yes, we were going to adopt, but we never got as far as filling out the information for such a thing to occur." That wasn't a big thing, but then she uttered her next words. "We were going to have a baby."

"What?" he breathed in shock. "You were pregnant?" She nodded.

"We had been trying for several years, almost the whole marriage had been centered around that one goal." She looked away from him and toward a window. "We both had that goal and with failure we both gave up. Our marriage was still a complete one, but I really wanted a child so he agreed to adopt a child. There are plenty of them out there without a home and sure, the child we picked wouldn't be the baby we wanted, but I- we were fine with that." The halfa could hear the hesitation, her correction in the sentence that she had just said. It was a lie, most of it and although he wanted to call her on it he found he couldn't, not yet anyway.

"I went into that room because I was drawn there, something wanted me to look in there, but as I was in there..." he faded off as he found her gaze turned to him. "Something opened the door behind me and then slammed it. As I turned to phase through the door I grabbed the knob. It opened. I heard a noise and as I opened the door to investigate I found a pool of blood on the ground surrounded by shards of glass." Danny failed to notice the female before him flinch, her hand going to her right side as if to check something. "I couldn't feel it at that moment, but as the blood drained away I felt a chill in the air for two seconds."

"Strange," the Goth muttered. The halfa looked at her now.

"How was your marriage?" he inquired. She looked at him, her amethyst orbs unreadable as she hid her emotions.

"It was great." He inquired as to how she had met her husband and Sam told him. "I met Chris the year that you went to fight in the Ghost Zone... He was a new student and I was chosen to show him around, but somehow even though we started off on the wrong foot we managed to become real great friends." She hadn't wanted to tell him with as alone as she felt during those days, Tucker and Valerie in their own little world, that the new companion had been just what she had needed. "After that it just seemed so natural. He was like me in so many ways and yet so different that we meshed perfectly." Those words hurt Danny immensely. He had thought that he and Sam were like that. Close enough with most of their similarities and yet each of them had differences that made them unique.

"No disagreements or fights?" She looked to him in confusion as to all the personal questions he was asking about. "Just curious." Her eyes narrowed as she realized what he could possibly be implying.

"Danny, Chris would never harm me! He loved me for fuck's sake!" The halfa's own eyes narrowed. "That fact that you would think that my dead husband would come back to harm me is so fucking ludicrous!" She climbed out of bed now and although she was afraid of what was at her house informed the man that now stood behind her that she was going home regardless of what was in her home.

"Come on, Sam, be reasonable," he said. "I have to ask because it is a possibility!" She shook her head, refusing now to talk to him as she exited the room, barefoot and with very little in the way of clothing as she was still in her nightwear from a few days past now. Danny couldn't understand how she couldn't think that he had wanted to ask those questions, but he had had to for her safety. "When did the haunting happen?" She stopped halfway down the stairs, her eyes refusing to turn toward the halfa as she gave him an answer.

"When you showed up in my house," was her response before continuing. That answer was not the one the halfa had thought he would hear. He had thought it had happened before he had even stepped foot in her home and yet at the same time if it was her husband it might make sense. Sam had gone into a depressive state after the loss of her husband and child so if another male stepped into her home where they had stayed then he might come forth to remove what the ghost had perceived as a threat.

Jazz approached him now, a sad smile on her face.

"Seems I've rubbed off on you, little brother." The halfa standing next to her was taller than his sister so when he looked down at her, his ice blue eyes flashing green the woman knew to step off. "Just saying that you may have gotten more than you bargained for." With that she was gone too, the sound of her car starting up and driving off the last things that he heard. No, he had gotten the answer he had needed and although he hated that his presence was what set the ghost off he now needed to find out more about her marriage.

'Where could I get that kind of information?' It only took a few seconds for a few names to come to mind, one of which he was sure would never talk to him, but he would try because Sam's very life was in danger.

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While Danny went to talk to a few people in regards to the Goth's marriage, the Gothic woman in question stepped back into her house, her amethyst orbs wide as she stepped from the warmth of outside into a chilling sixty in her home. That was the normal temperature that she kept it on so she knew at this moment she was alone, but as she stepped further into her home after locking the door she found the mess that Danny had told her of, the glass shards still littering the floor.

She stepped around it, but it brought back another memory of a vase breaking one night... She couldn't remember much after that save for the blood that had hit the ground... next to...

No! She felt a headache come over her as she stepped away from the glass, her eyes closed as she moved down the hall toward her room. Finally crashing into the bed she crawled into the middle and covered herself with the blankets, but instead clinging to her husband's pillow she clung to hers, the sounds around her making her antsy. Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes and willed sleep to come, but when it didn't she reached under her pillow where a small jar lay, the bottle had her name on it along with the name of the liquid inside.

She opened it up, her hands shaking as she knew the consequences of her actions when taking this particular drug, but at this point she couldn't care as she finally got it open before placing the opening to her lips and taking a long drink of the lavender liquid. Moments after placing the lid on the container she felt the edge of darkness enter her mind as her body shut down. In her sleepy state she failed to notice the shadow that lingered in the corners of the room, one moving over her bed as it took shape.

As she slept the shadows moved closer to her, the chill in the air growing as the Goth began to shudder, her petite form curling further under the blankets just seconds before she went absolutely still.

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Danny was sitting before the Mansons during this, the couple before him frowning as they explained what they had thought of the man their daughter had chosen to marry.

"He has no real background, not that we could find anyway," Thurston admitted with a frown. "He didn't tell us what he did and I'm not even entirely sure that Sam even knew what he did." The halfa made a note of that. Pamela nodded, her teal eyes thoughtful as she remembered all that she had seen of Chris, the man who had married their daughter.

"When we first met him it was a month after they had been dating, not that we knew that at the time with how they acted." When Danny asked her what she meant by that she elaborated. "Well, they didn't seem too clingy or anything, but with the way he looked at her, it wasn't love and with her I wasn't very sure about because Sam has gotten really good at hiding her emotions." Pamela sighed before taking a drink of her tea before. "I don't think it was a match made in heaven if anything I think he was a con artist."

"Because of his lack of background?" the halfa questioned. Pamela shook her head.

"I thought I had seen his face somewhere," Thurston stated. "Somewhere on TV years ago, but I can't recall." That was interesting so Danny inquired when he remembered seeing the broadcast. Given a roundabout date Danny thanked the couple before leaving to get in touch with Tucker, the one that would be able to assist him in finding such footage.


	5. Chapter 5

Danny was sitting in the library, his eyes glued to the screen before him. He had persuaded the librarian to allow him unlimited time in the small screening room, not that it was hard to do as Phantom since he had saved her before as well. He had already gone through hours of video with no images of Sam's former husband and he was beginning he would never see the guy until an image flashed briefly on screen, the man looking back at him one pissed of male.

What the fuck? He flicked back, his ice blue eyes taking in the man that was described as a man that knew how to work the ladies, his targets: rich and lonely. Danny's eyes narrowed as he read the rest of it, his eyes growing more and more narrowed with every sentence. The man before him wasn't one to go for women like Sam, no, his targets were either really old or really young. Usually they had been widowed or they had yet to meet a man and were susceptible to his charms. Shit. The halfa was liking the man less and less, his image becoming clearer by the moment and as he read the last few lines he knew that Sam had gotten herself into deep waters because this man left a trail of women behind... all of them dead.

Suddenly his phone rang, startling the man that was reading about a horror of a man.

"Hello?" A pause as he listened to the person on the other end. "WHAT?! I'll be there in a second!" Slamming his phone shut he turned off the video, his transformation quick before phasing through the ceiling, his eyes flashing green with worry.

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Sam lay in the middle of her bed, her back pressed as far as she could into the wall behind her. Her amethyst gaze was locked on the shadow before her, her mouth open in shock at the thing staring back at her, well, it had no eyes so she wasn't sure it was looking at her, but she was still scared. She had been sleeping rather well for the first few minutes and then it had felt so cold, the images of her arms bruised again filling her mind, but this time there had been hands holding her arms and the shadow before her shaking her.

"Go away!" she cried out, her hands at her sides clinging to the sheets under her as she tried in vain to get further and further from the ghost before her. She had seen her share of the specters, but none like this one and for some reason the lack of features made her shake. "Leave me alone!" There was the sound of something in the hall crashing, glass entering her vision as she watched it scatter over the tiles and the form of someone on the ground. Sam couldn't tell who it was, but she didn't like what was going on in her home. She didn't want to leave the house and yet she was so afraid of the apparition before her as it loomed.

The strange thing was that it wasn't moving. It was just hovering, never moving closer. Suddenly it threw what could only be it's arms up, as if hearing her thoughts, and throwing a chair in her direction. Sam stared at it, her eyes wide like a deer caught in the light of an oncoming truck. She couldn't move, her body felt so heavy and then it was gone as a splintering sound filled the air. Sam looked at the blackness in her vision, her eyes traveling up to see white.

'Am I dead?' She received an answer as a pair of green eyes flashed at her, the person before her glancing over to see her looking spaced out. "Danny?" How had he known? She didn't care about that, she realized, she was so happy that the halfa was there, the shadow gone now as the air went back up a little. "Danny!" she cried out as she leapt toward him, her arms going around his waist and forcing him forward with a gasp. The pair fell forward, Sam's face in the halfa's ass as he was forced into the mattress.

"Um, Sam?" came the muffled voice. "Could you get your face- out of my ass?" The Goth was quick to move as she moved back. Taking a deep breath the halfa sat up, his chest heaving, before turning to her. "Are you okay?" She nodded. "That was one very pissed of ghost and yet I still can't figure out what connection you have with the creep." Sam shrugged. She was also clueless as to what the thing wanted with her. The halfa motioned to the glass on the floor, his green eyes reverting to ice blue as he de-transformed. "And that is the second time I saw that, but the item that broke..." he faded off and she knew why. The item that had broken was unknown since there was no glass vases or anything that had been in that area of the house, or well at all because Sam didn't want it there.

"We need to talk," Danny said as he sat back before the woman he had known for forever. "I found out some information about your husband, information that makes me believe that he was more of a con artist than a real husband." Sam's eyes narrowed in dislike. "Don't look at me like that," the halfa said, his voice stern. "That wasn't even his name."

"Shut up," Sam muttered suddenly, her eyes darkening as she glared at him. "Chris was a great guy and a loving husband." She backed up, her posture of fear changing to anger in an instant. Danny didn't know what to say to her, his eyes locking with hers only to watch them narrow further. "Get out!" The halfa's own eyes narrowed.

"Damn it, Sam, I'm just trying to point s-"

"Get out!" the Goth screamed as she stood up, her posture unsteady, but again she cried out for him to leave, her form shaking slightly. Danny nodded and transforming disappeared from her sight, the air growing a little more warm. The Goth dropped to the bed suddenly, her eyes relaxing as she looked around her now empty room. 'Sorry, Danny, but Chris wasn't a bad person.' She hadn't wanted to yell at her friend, but what he was saying just made no sense. Sure, they had had their fights, never bad ones, and Chris had never laid a hand on her so for her best friend to say those things was wrong. Looking around again she realized that she had no one because she had pushed her one good friend away.

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Danny frowned at the screen of his computer, the names listed before him making him even more angry. How in the fuck could she do that?! Sure, he was her husband, but he was a fucking scumbag! The halfa was mad and if he had to admit it he would have to say that finding out that his friend's husband to be a motherfucker wasn't the only reason. All that he had seen of the guy was pissing him off, but the fact that Sam had married the louse was ticking him off to no end. For some reason the thought that she had married at all seemed to tick him off in a way that gave him pause. Why was he mad about that? He had been her friend and nothing more.

She hadn't even given him a clue as to her feelings being more than that anyway, but he had been ready to tell her that. He let out a frustrated growl, the urge to punch something filling him and he yearned for the Box Ghost to show up so he could beat the idiot to a pulp. It wasn't going to do much good, but it would make him feel better for like a second. Leaning back in his chair he closed his eyes, the idea of Sam sleeping with the creep that had married her entering his mind.

"Stop it!" he yelled into the room. "Just stop it!" He stood up now, the chair falling back as he walked away from it. "What the fuck is wrong with me!? My friend is in mourning and here I am fucking wanting to be with her in a fucking sexual level!" He slammed his fist into a wall, the wall crumbling on impact. "I am a fucking loser!"

"Yeah, you are, but love tends to do that," came a voice from the window. Danny turned to find Dani, his clone now cousin looking at him. She had moved in with his family for a short time, but on the occasion she liked to wander around. "What is your malfunction now, dude?"

"You've been hanging around Tucker haven't you?" the halfa questioned.

"Avoidance, nice, but you need to answer the question. What is wrong?" Danny groaned, but went ahead and told the small teen about his issue, though she was rather clueless like him when it came to such things. "You should be honest with her because even though she's in mourning she needs to know. Besides, she's been in mourning for how long?"

"A long time is what I understand, but hey, were you here when he was around?" The white haired girl nodded as she sat down next to him. "What do you remember about him?" She looked thoughtful for a moment.

"He was okay, I guess. I heard him scream and cuss on a phone one day, but I don't know who he was talking to. Sam was in the other room with Maddie and she didn't seem to want to be around him, but I wouldn't want to be around someone who was pissed off either."

"Was he like that often, did you ever see him hit anyone?" She shook her head. "So you only saw him pissed off that one time? Are you sure?"

"What's this about?" He led her over to his computer and showed her all the information he had on the man that had married Sam. "That's not her husband's name though," the white haired teen pointed out. "His name was Chris not Eric." Danny scrolled down so she could see it all and with each new sentence, each new alias she found her eyes growing wider and wider. "What the fuck? How could Sam f-" She stopped as it hit her. She scrolled back up, noticing that with each name there was a change, hair color changing and clothing choices changed... "His eyes."

"What about them?" Danny inquired as he leaned closer to the images. "Oh, they change. Not hard with colored contacts." She grabbed him by the ear and forced him closer to the computer image and the scrolled up before scrolling down. The halfa she was holding continued to glare at the screen, his eyes not seeing what she was seeing. "What is it?"

"Fuck, how do I make you see it? Look into the eye!" Using his mouse she scrolled to the first picture and zoomed in on the male's eye and then scrolled to the next one and it hit Danny right then as she continued to scroll down. His eyes had no pupils!


	6. Chapter 6

Sam lay in her bed, her eyes still open as she stared up at the ceiling, her mind going back to those words... those things that Danny had said only hours ago.

-You're so gullible! I never wanted a child!-

Sam rolled over on her side, her eyes shutting against the words that echoed around her mind. He had always been nice! Never had he ever said such words to her! Danny had filled her head with lies and now her mind was... No, Danny had never said anything about their child, he had never implied that Chris had not wanted a child!

-Why did you wait?! You could have had the baby aborted, but now it's not an option!-

Shaking Sam found herself back in that car, the night they had been struck and killed. She hadn't really thought of that moment, the real moment in that car, had she? It had just been her mind trying to keep her sane as she fought the issues. There had been so many issues and she had blocked them all from her mind...

**They had been together for a long time and in that time sex hadn't really been something big for the pair of them if at all. Chris seemed so withdrawn and uninterested. She had thought that he had been being a gentleman, but no, she had found out that he just didn't want her. She had become withdrawn at that moment, but had stuck with him since she figured that was as good as it was going to get, until one night she had been dreaming about Danny and being with him as she had always wanted to be. It had felt so real and then she had awoken to find Chris on top of her, having sex with her. She had almost pushed him off, but it had felt good at first; when she had been imagining that it was Danny with her instead of her estranged husband.

That was when it had happened. That had to be because that had been the first time in months that they had been intimate. When she had found out she had kept it to herself, unsure of what to do. She wanted the child, but at the same time she wasn't sure about how Chris would feel about it as he had been so for them having babies and yet failed to try and get her pregnant. About three months into her pregnancy, that being the cut off for abortions she had called his parents and had informed them of a surprise that they would be giving them when they saw them for their regular dinner visit. His parents hadn't seemed too excited, but Sam had figured they didn't really like her because even though she was part of their circles, she wasn't proper. Hours before they were to head out Chris had received a call, one that he hadn't given her any information about. After that he had left, leaving her alone.

Hours later when it would have been the time for them to go Sam sat on the porch, a black blouse that hung loose on her and a black pair of slacks covering her shaking form. She had been so mad at that point, so tired of all the shit her husband was giving her and then he had pulled up, the tires on his sports car squealing in the night. She had stormed over to him, her lips turned in a scowl as she stepped up to him, the darkness hiding his own face from view.

"Where the fuck were you?!" she cried out at the closed door, the red driver door opening, but Sam didn't take in his appearance as she was upset at him. "We have to leave now if we want to make it on time to your parents' home!" Chris stepped out, his eyes narrowed and his breath reeking of alcohol as he towered over her. Sam felt a flicker of fear as she looked up at him, but blew it off as he was her husband and would never hurt her.

She was wrong as his hands flew out to grasp her upper arms in a rough grip, his nail cutting into her skin as his fingertips left marks. He laughed then, a dry emotionless laugh as he pulled her toward him.

"Samantha, dear dear Samantha, you are so gullible or maybe you're just so lonely..." he faded off as he picked her up and forced her into his arms as he forced his mouth down on hers, making her taste the nastiness of his mouth and his drinks for the evening. Sam began to fight him as fear took over. He shoved her against the car hood, the heat from the engine burning her through her clothing.

"Ow," she whimpered. "You're hurting me." He smirked down at her, his hand releasing her while the other continued to hold her in place. She couldn't tell what he was doing, but when he pulled out some duct tape she had a clue this was about to go down hard. Her amethyst orbs grew huge and she tried to scream but he was too fast as he smacked her, the sound of her neck snapping loud in her own ears.

"I was planning on killing you anyway, but it was to be later, you know, after your parents died and left you their wealth," he confided as he pulled the tape tight across her mouth. "The problem was how long they were going to be around and then I figured I would have them killed, you know place a hit out on them." Sam began to struggle, her feet kicking out and managing to knock him back from her. It gave her seconds to react as she rolled over, her hands coming out to push herself up and off the car... Unfortunately she had not been quick enough as he reached out, his hand fisting in her long raven locked before yanking her back.

"Bitch!" he hissed as he backhanded her, his handprint that was left behind burning her skin. "Guess I need to teach you a lesson." He yanked her toward the passenger seat, his movements hindered with the alcohol that was in his system. Shoving her into the seat he quickly buckled her in, more tape used to keep the buckle on her. As she struggled to free herself as well as remain conscious from his sudden beatings he hopped into the driver seat where a bottle of dark liquid lay. Picking it up he placed it between his legs as he started the car. "Oh, and I thought you knew the rules of this relationship and one rule is that you never call my parents!" Throwing the car in reverse the car flew back, tires squealing bringing some of their neighbors out to investigate.**

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Danny rushed to Sam's house, certain that something bad was about to happen to the Goth who unknowingly had married something otherworldly! As he rushed toward the house he looked around, keeping his eyes open for anything that would alert him to possible danger. What he got was more than that because as he looked before him now he could see a large black dome that was growing and expanding over Sam's home, the crackling of energy heard from miles away as electricity flickered over it. It was an ominous sight and he could feel the darkness coming from it.

"I'm coming Sam!" he yelled as the sounds of screams filled his ears. He looked down to watch in horror as the dome that was growing hit people, most of them sucked in while others tried to run. The ones that were sucked into the darkness let out screams of pain before they disappeared into the gloom that was in the dome. The halfa had to help those people that were rushing out, but at the same time he knew that would be fruitless without destroying the dome first since it was going out in all directions. Agonizing over the decision he decided that he needed to stop the source of the evil dome in order to help the people that were trapped in it so rushing forward entered the darkness, a heaviness coming over him as he was forced to the ground.

It was like gravity was stronger in the dome, his body hitting the ground with agonizing force knocking the breath out of his lungs. As Danny struggled to stand Sam struggled to get past what her own past...

**They drove for what felt like forever and as they drove Sam struggled, the belt locked into place with the tape, holding her in like child in highchair, but the real question was that once she was free what was she going to do then?! They were speeding on the main streets, not a cop in sight and she wasn't sure that they weren't going to cause a wreak with him being as drunk as he was. As he turned a corner, the car swerving into the oncoming lane for a split second the man in the driver's seat pulled the lid off of his drink, guzzling more of the foul smelling liquid. The Goth could still taste it in her mouth and with the tape still covering her mouth she had no way of spitting it out so it continued to linger, her morning sickness coming into play.

It was a miracle as he looked at her and noticing her green color cursed before ripping the tape off of her lips with a loud whimper coming from her freed lips. "Stupid woman. I need you to live until I get you to the sight I want to kill you at." The Goth frowned at him and taking that moment with her distraction he reached down, grabbing a bottle of water, concern in his eyes. "Have a drink, I am sure that the taste of vomit is most unpleasant " She looked at him as if he had grown a second head, her eyes untrusting as she eyed the water. "Fine, I was o-" he was interrupted as she took the bottle, her fingers working to open it and smell the liquid inside.

When she was sure that it was just water she took a drink, the cool substance making her sigh in relief. "Why are you doing this?" As he began to turn again, another long stretch of road ahead of them he gave her the answer.

"Because this is what I live for, what keeps me alive, Samantha, but a child was never in the cards. Why did you wait?! You could have had the baby aborted, but now it's not an option!" Sam shrunk away from him, fear the only feeling in her bones at the moment. "How could you even conceive?!"

"Because I was fertile when you had sex with me," she returned. "I never said I couldn't have children." He glared at the road, his eyes flashing so dark that Sam was sure she had seen an illusion or her mind was playing games with her. "Why would you ask that?" She was curious and he seemed reluctant and yet happy to tell her, it was just a matter of which side won out.**


	7. Chapter 7

"I am not human, woman," he spat. "I was a human at one point, but I sold my soul and now you have fucked it up!" Now he was growing angry, as if remembering a bargain he had made long ago, one that he had broken. "I was never to have kids, but I was never able to have that ability removed because like vampires whatever I cut grows back just as quickly." As he said this Sam remembered that he had never changed in appearance not in the entire time that she had been with him. His hair never changed in length nor had he aged.

"What are you?" He smirked then, a telltale of his humor at the situation as he turned another sharp corner to cross onto the main roads, all around them houses that just touched the roadside. "You're not a vampire nor are you a ghost." His brow rose in question on how she could rule them out. "You don't drink blood nor do you have the abilities that my halfa friend has."

"You know a half ghost? Since when?" This was interesting and yet infuriating to the male driving. He hated competition and although he had married the young beauty at his side he still felt that she wasn't fully his and now he had an idea of why. "You love this halfa?" The woman at his side shook her head, but he could see into her soul as she did that and he knew that she was lying. This halfa, whatever his name was, was the one that truly held her heart. If he failed in holding her heart at the time of her death he failed his task so frowning at the window he wondered how he could do that before ending her life on their car ride.

"So, your parents aren't really your parents, are they?"

"No, they are not my parents, in fact they are complete strangers hired to play my parents, but that is completely off the subject at hand. Why do you love him? What is about him that is so great?" Sam's eyes narrowed and even though it probably wasn't the time or place to argue with him she did.

"I do not love him!" she protested. "Danny is my friend and nothing more!" Chris' eyes narrowed now at the name. He knew that halfa, had watched him plenty of times on TV as his good deeds were published. He hated that guy! All his good went against HIS evil deeds and just rubbed him the wrong way all around. "I love you and that is all that matters." He shook his head.

"No, no you don't and I knew that when we got together, but I never knew it wasn't a human that held your heart!" he fumed. "It would have been easy to wipe that one from your heart, but no, a halfa! He's not just another face in the fucking crowd!" He slammed his fists on the steering wheel his eyes closing for a second. "Guess that means I lose this one, but that's okay because it will take so little time to find another human, another heart for the taking." He still had the problem of the child, but with the death of that child it should be okay. Just as he thought that the sound of sirens hit his ears as well as hers, the sound of squealing tires as another car came careening from behind with a cop on their tail.

"We need to pull over," Sam hissed as she looked into the rearview, her body still taped in. His smirk returned as he put the pedal to the metal, his tires squealing and then it all kind of slowed down as the turn ahead was made, the sharp angle too much for car and driver as they hit the edge of a wall enough to put them in a spin. The Goth let out a scream, her cry lost in the sounds of the sirens, the tires screeching and then the ultimate sound of metal hitting metal. All the while Chris smirked, well, he did until the the moment the windshield broke and embedded itself in his chest, the the smirk died. Sam was lucky as she was buckled, well, confined to her chair.

It was all so quick and so strange to watch from her perspective as the cops stopped and began to call for help. She could hear them, all of them around the car as the officer came to her side and promised everything would be okay. He asked if either of them were injured and even though she wasn't sure what she felt for the man at her side she nodded. The officer alerted the EMT's pulling up that there were two injured. It was too late though as she turned to look at her husband, his eyes fading to black before her.

"I hate you and always have," he managed to spit. "Samantha Manson." Blood oozed over his face and into his eyes as he slumped forward, his body embedded with the large piece of glass. His mouth opened again and she was sure he had more to say, but all that came out was blood. She failed to notice that blood was running down her face as well, until it hit her mouth and she could taste it, the metallic taste of life. She wanted to reach out and touch him, to ensure that he was dead, but she couldn't bring herself to take a chance that he would come back, his plan to kill her to unknown to her. She was sure he was going to do something with this little trip, but she hadn't known what.**

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Danny rushed back to Sam's house, the Goth certain to be in some trouble as her husband certainly wasn't human and even though he was certain of that the halfa couldn't pinpoint what he was! The dome's gravity was strong and Danny was making little in the way of progress as he continued to rush forward toward his goal. As he looked up though he was shocked to find himself looking eye to eye with the one person he had been so adamant to protect.

"Sam?" he questioned. The Goth stood stock still before him, her form unwavering against the gravity that seemed to pull him down. "You're not her." The form smirked, the purple lips twisting with malice as she looked up, her eyes black orbs of nothingness.

"Oh, but I am her, just another side of her," the form replied. "I am her despair, her lack of life if you will." The person before her looked down at her black dress, the outfit form fitting and sleek in appearance, but if one were to look closer they would have noticed that it seemed to be moving, like tar spreading out. It didn't move toward him though and only danced around her form like a pool that she was stuck in. "I am her feeling of remorse, her feelings of tragedy and sadness. I am depression, the one she has been stuck with since his demise. I hold onto her, cuddling her like a loved one. I am all she has left."

"That's not true! She has me!" Depression sighed, a sad sigh he was sure, but she shook her head.

"Where were you when she married him? Where were you when she lost him?" Those were questions that he had answers for and they were legit, but he had a feeling they would not make the Goth before him happy. The look she was giving him though gave him pause on how he should answer. She knew what his response was and she didn't look like it was the right one. "Yeah, so you were battling Pariah. She's proud of you, don't get me wrong, but you are her closest friend and she needed you. It took you too long to defeat him when you beat him with little effort the last time."

"I tried to hurry, but he took me down faster this time and he had more allies than he had the last time!" the halfa stated with vengeance. "I wanted to be here, but I couldn't be here without putting any of my loved ones in harm's way!" The Goth blinked, surprise in her eyes and then she smiled. It wasn't a sad smile, not this time. It was a triumphant smile.

"It is true that you love her, that you are her other half. She has mourned the time you were gone and that is part of the puzzle that you must know. She couldn't move on, but she forced herself... she made herself move past the past." Before Danny could question what she had said she moved to the side, a path behind her leading to the house in the far distance. "I must warn you though. His darkness hides the love you share." With that she was gone. The halfa didn't know what that meant, but he knew that she had told him this for a reason and he would have to figure it out on his own. Moving on he wondered how long it would be until he could be with Sam and if the Goth was okay.

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Sam lay there, her body like stone in the bed and she could feel it, the doom of what she had taken in. The knowledge that her child had been a spawn of some otherworldly creature and yet if it had been Danny's child she wouldn't have been so upset about having conceived, but the knowledge that he was something demonic or evil made her cringe. She had loved that life inside of her, but she had thought she had loved Chris too. Had it all been a lie? Had it been love or was it fear?

'You never loved me... 'Sitting up she looked around, even as the gravity around her tried to hold her down. 'Not that l loved you, but you only feared the loneliness, the darkness of being alone.' She looked up to find a dark cloud over her bed, nothing but darkness.

"You're Chris aren't you?" A chuckle was her response, the air growing heavier with heat as the room began to warm more and more. She could feel it, the heat that was making her skin burn and yet it felt like it was inside of her. "I did love you at one point, but after..."

'Do not lie, human! You couldn't love me with your heart belonging to someone else! Do you think I could believe such garbage?! I am not an idiot!'

"Why would I lie to you? I didn't even know you were not who you sa-" The walls shook and a shadowy form appeared before her, his eyes black pools of emptiness.

"SHUT UP! You never loved me and I have no need to hear these lies! You killed me while you continued to live on! You were supposed to die with me!" He growled out his frustration. "You broke my bargain. I was never to conceive a fucking child! That was a deal breaker and now I may never come back!" Sam shuddered as the heat grew around her. "But I will have my revenge, little one. I will take you with me to the darkness. You will be swallowed whole and will feel the depths of hell with me!" Sam fell back, her body feeling like a stone as she sank into the sheets. "Before that though, I will have my fun!"


	8. Chapter 8

Danny rushed toward the house, his footsteps echoing around him as the dome over him grew bigger, screams of pain and horror filling his ears, but there was one that hit him deep. "Sam!" The Goth was screaming in pain, her cries louder than the others around him and he seemed to find the strength, the power surging forward from his core. "I'm coming! I promise I won't let you go!" Surging forward he hit the house, phasing through the wall and into the heat of Sam's room. His eyes fell on her body just as it sank all the way into the sheets. His green eyes grew wide as he rushed to her side, her fingers still visible.

"Oh, here comes the prince to save the day!" came a sinister voice, the deep baritone mocking as it chuckled in delight. "Too bad that you are too late! She's mine and now she will forever taste the pain of hell!" The halfa let out a growl as he reached out for the slender fingers of the Goth. He managed to grasp her hand, his own gloved hands wrapping around her. A cry slipped from her lips as she was tugged up, her body feeling the suction of being dragged down and pulled forward at the same time. Danny didn't want to hurt her, but he couldn't lose her! He would cease living if he lost her.

"I won't let you have her!" Danny hissed, his voice rough as he struggled to bring her back. The voice grew angry now, the room growing hotter as the halfa managed to tug her out, her skin flushed from the heat as he sweated bullets, but as she fell on him he felt happier, his arms coming around her to pull her closer to his hot form.

"Well, if you want her so bad then you both can join me in hell!" As he screamed his agenda the room shuddered, the walls cracked with the momentum. Danny held onto his Goth, her arms coming around his neck with the strength of a newborn, her small mews all that could be heard as she cried. Just as Danny felt the heat grow hotter the ground fell out from under them, the pair falling into the darkness, the abyss of Eric's hell.

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Eric stood above them when they awoke, his body different from what Sam remembered of him, but Danny recognized him as he stood up, the heat around them making everything wavy. Sam felt the heat more than the males, her human body unable to handle the temperature, but she stood strong, still holding onto the halfa. Danny could feel the shaking from his partner, her small body wet on the back, but when he looked down he found himself looking at blood, not water, on his hands. Looking at the woman clinging to him he wasn't sure if she knew and decided that he wouldn't tell her as he pulled his shirt off.

"What are you doing?" she questioned as he pulled it over her head. It wasn't heavy or hot like she expected, but she was unsure why he was pulling it on. Looking down she remembered that she had nothing on except for a shirt and shorts. Then she seemed to see the blood trickling down her legs. She noticed the blood on the shirt too and wondered briefly which one of them was hurt.

"So, you think that you can hold us here, Eric?" Danny inquired of the smirking male. "Not likely." Sam was confused, her eyes locking with the black ones above her. Who was this? She had been talking to Chris a moment before Danny arrived and now this other male appeared. Had Chris been possessed? Eric smirked, his lips curling into an evil grin.

"Seems someone has been doing research, too bad Sam didn't do that. This could have been avoided, but I should have done just as much since now I am doomed." Black brow rising Danny wondered what he was talking about. "I can only be with someone who can give me their whole heart, but this human cannot do that with her love for the halfa, you." Now Danny turned to Sam, the Goth flushed with both heat and embarrassment.

"If you can't have her then let her go! You can settle this with me!" Danny growled. The dark haired male floating over them shook his head. "Why the fuck not!? She didn't deserve any of this!" the halfa said gesturing around them. "She is a good person and doesn't deserve Hell!"

"I don't care what she deserves from her peer's point of view. She is the reason I may never take on a human form outside of Hell! She has forced me to break my contract with the king of this domain and as she is the problem she will stay and burn with me, though she might not make it long and then it will not matter." Danny looked confused and Eric looked surprised, fake of course, as he began to gloat. "Do you not know, halfa, how the dimensions work?" He shook his head. While the pair talked Sam tried to focus on the task of staying awake beside her ghost friend. His cool body was the only thing keeping her up as she held onto him. She could feel her body growing weaker the longer they stood there.

"The Ghost Zone has those with obsessions, whether it be good or bad as you have seen. Frostbite is a good guy and obsessed with the world being good or in his case, the Ghost Zone while hell is for evil people, unfortunately if you die in either you are stuck in that dimension until you are killed. Then you are either in the abyss between the worlds or you move on." Danny got it at that moment. If Sam died here then here she would remain unless someone killed her soul. If that were to happen there was no telling where she would go and if she would be free. Looking down at her he could see the sweat that was trickling down from her temples. With a quick curse he used his ice power to make it colder around them, a shield forming around the pair. It kept the heat off them, not that he could feel it as much as she could.

"I will do whatever I need to to defeat you," Danny swore. "I know that you aren't a ghost now, but a demon and that would be tricky since I'm not Sam or Dean with my unlimited knowledge on your type." Eric chuckled. Sam was feeling better, but she was still confused as to the fact that this guy had Chris' voice, but didn't look like him. She was still sure that Chris had been possessed and now Danny was fighting the man she loved. Looking up at the halfa she found her heart pounding. She had loved him at one time too and when that had failed she had found real love. You couldn't love more than once anyway, not truly.

Danny didn't attack since he wasn't sure how to take the other man down, but it had to do with what Depression said. She had said they were the halves that would make each other whole and that Eric would hide it. Was that the key to turning this all around? It was a chance he had to take so turning from the other dark haired male he looked down at the woman before him, the one wearing his shirt over her small hurt form. Sam was a strong woman, you could see it in the way she stood next to him and yet she needed him to hold her up without question. She was the other half to him because not only did he love her with every fiber of his being, but she was his other half that kept him sane and happy.

Sam looked to him now, her eyes holding confusion and that wasn't the only thing he saw. He remembered what Dani had said to him about the eyes so he looked deeply into her amethyst orbs. They sparkled back at him and without saying a word he leaned down, his lips brushing those lids as they closed, the heat that came off of her body making him warm. She whimpered softly as he kissed one eyelid and then the other, his kisses like butterflies tickling her. He then pulled back and it was like looking at a different person. Her eyes were brighter now, as if a veil had been lifted off of them.

"Danny?" she breathed in confusion. He nodded as he leaned forward again, this time his lips touching her warm ones, her breath coming out in pants even before the touch of his own. She was leaning toward him now, allowing him to kiss her with his pent up passion. As her lips opened on a gasp Eric let out a growl, his hands flying forward causing what looked like Danny's ghostly wail without the sound. As the ice orb shock the pair broke apart, their hands grasping onto the others arms to stay steady. The other male thought he had won, but Sam smiled up at her halfa, her hands reaching for his face as she leaned to kiss him again. It seemed to be answer to the puzzle as her heart was open and her mind full of her one true love. "Danny."

"NOOO!" Eric screamed as he began to attack in earnest, his blasts hitting the ice orb with little effect as Sam's memories became clearer, her false love of Chris and her true love of Danny. As they pulled back Sam found that her body felt lighter, the amethyst orbs looking into Danny's green ones before the pair turned to watch as Eric was torn away from the orb, his body ripped down the middle without actually killing him. His blood bled black under him like oil spilling from a tanker. It was slow and sticky, clinging to it's owner as his skin began to melt and fall off. Before either could tell what was happening a shadow appeared before the other male, his expression of terror telling them that he was Eric's master, the one that he made the broken deal with. Chanting was heard from the shadow as Eric's skin continued to melt away.

"Don't look," Danny whispered as he pulled her face into his chest. She let out a squeak and was silent as Danny closed his own eyes. The shadow drew out Eric's soul sending his body to the ground in a disgusting pile of blood, skin and bones. The pair waited only seconds before they looked up, the feeling of fresh air hitting them. Sam and Danny looked around them at her room, the place feeling lighter in comparison to what it had been. Before Danny could say one word the Goth took his hand and yanked him for the door.

"Let's get out of here," she whispered. The halfa nodded and with a quick movement had his woman in his arms, the Goth grabbing him around the neck as they went intangible. As soon as they were out though Danny looked down at the raven haired beauty in his arms. She could see the question in his eyes and knew what to say, her lips curling. "Only once. You can only love once and that was you from the word go." The halfa smiled, his lips crashing on hers as they headed away from the home that had been an illusion and the relationship that had been an escape.


End file.
